Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Maddie Mccann case: Press review MAY 2007

May 2007 Press review on Maddie's case where Innocence en danger is quoted

May 11

THE SUN

Portugal: let's all make it worse
Mick Hume: Notebook
When did child abduction become a spectator sport? Who benefits from seeing daily pictures of Madeleine McCann's distraught mother clutching her missing child's toy? And why are many experts and authorities preying on our fears to promote their own agenda?
We have witnessed two different operations around the abduction of the three-year-old girl from an Algarve holiday apartment. There has been the secretive Portuguese investigation, apparently marred by infighting between police organisations. And then there has been the public "who's to blame?" inquiry, where campaigners and pundits vie to use the case as a vehicle for point-scoring and finger-pointing.
Some crusaders blame the Portuguese for not sharing Britain's heightened state of paedophile-phobia. Others question why the British parents dared to leave their children asleep in a locked apartment while having dinner. There are demands for a crackdown on British sex offenders travelling abroad, and global action against international paedophile rings.
It seems as if everybody wants a piece of the action in Portugal. The UK government-backed Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre packed a psychologist and a behavioural analyst off to the Algarve. The Sun newspaper asks us all to "sign our petition to protect UK's kids from paedos", which turns out to be a call for more funding for the flying abuse experts of the CEOP. Meanwhile, a Swiss campaigner suggests that this would not have happened if the Portuguese authorities had only agreed to help to set up her "Innocence in Danger" campaign in Lisbon: "The fact that the girl was kidnapped from her bed shows how bad things are."
The message from all sides is that this unique crime somehow shows innocence is in danger everywhere, and only the army of child protection experts can save it. The effect is to spread anxiety in a way that seems detached from the actual case. What difference, for example, could a British-style sex offenders register make to the unprecedented abduction of a child from a Portuguese holiday camp? Some of those criticising Portugual's laws, which preclude giving the UK media details of the investigation, seem more concerned to turn the McCann family's tragedy into a British public spectacle, an emotional national experience. Everybody from Premiership footballers to a Downing Street spokesman has got involved this week. Such displays might make some feel better over here, but can make little difference to the case over there.
The self-promoting child protection industry's eagerness to seize upon the McCann abduction can only reinforce fears that our children are not safe anywhere from the internet to the Algarve. We are told that this is "every parent's nightmare". But who is helping to give parents those nightmares, warning us "it could be you"? All agree that nothing is more terrible than child abduction. So why make its impact even worse?

May 10

The Times

Madeleine 'abducted to order by an international child sex gang'
Thomas Catán and Stewart Tendler

Portuguese police are now working on the assumption that Madeleine McCann was abducted "to order" by an international paedophile network.
Detectives have discarded a range of other possibilities, including the theory that the 3-year-old British girl could have walked out of her Algarve hotel room by herself or was kidnapped for adoption, Portuguese newspapers have reported.
"Everything points to a kidnapping," a person close to the week-old investigation told Correio da Manhã, adding that police were now exclusively investigating the possibility that she had been captured by a child abuse network. Police sources quoted anonymously by several other local newspapers said much the same.
British officers specialising in child abduction cases have flown to the Algarve. One of them, Detective Superintendent Graham Hill, is a veteran of missing child investigations and was one of the senior detectives in the hunt for 13-year-old Milly Dowler, whose body was found in September 2002 in countryside in Hampshire. No one has ever been charged with the murder.
Mr Hill, who has been working for the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, was also a senior investigator in the hunt for Antoni Imiela, the serial rapist jailed in 2004 for attacks including five in Surrey. British detectives have also handed their Portuguese counterparts a list of people on Britain's sex offenders register who have travelled recently to the country.
It would not be the first time that a child taken from Portugal has ended up in the grip of a paedophile ring. In 1998 an 11-year-old boy called Rui Pedro Mendonça vanished while walking home from school in the northern Portuguese town Lousada. Three years later, horrific images of Rui Pedro being sexually abused were uncovered during an international police operation that cracked a global paedophile network. More than 200 paedophiles in 13 countries had exchanged more than 750,000 images of children through a private internet club called Wonderland.
Analysis showed that 1,236 children had been subjected to abuse that officers described as "unimaginable". Officers described weeping as they catalogued the pictures and being haunted for years afterwards.
The Portuguese boy's mother, Filomena Teixera, flew to Switzerland to view the pictures and was apparently able to identify her son. But he has never been found. Investigators fear that he may have been murdered to cover up the abuse.
"When I saw the news about the disappearance of the English girl, I was terrified," Ms Teixera told the 24 Horas newspaper. "I immediately thought of my son, even though the cases are different. And I thought of Madeleine's parents, the anguish they are suffering."
Ms Teixera said that she has had psychiatric treatment for eight hours a day for the past four years, since her father died. She still refuses to believe that her son, who would now be 20, could have died.
"When I stop believing he is alive, I lose all my strength," she said. "My brain doesn't allow me to think he is dead."

Child protection campaigners have alleged that a culture of corruption and complacency in Portugal is allowing such kidnappings to continue unabated. The founder of the Switzerland-based group Innocents in Danger has said that she had tried to set up an office in Portugal but gave up because of the reluctance of the authorities. Homayra Sellier said after Madeleine's disappearance last week that Portugal was a country in which "the corruption has gone so high that there's nothing we can do".
"The fact that the girl [Madeleine] was kidnapped from her bed shows how bad things are."

The international child protection group Innocence in Danger claimed that corruption and indifference among the Portuguese authorities hampers the country's investigation of paedophiles and child traffickers. Homayra Sellier, founder of the group, said she had tried to set up an office in Portugal but gave up because of pressure from the authorities. "I stopped it because I thought I couldn't fight against a country where the people do not want to know the truth," she said.

Balding man seen dragging blonde girl towards marina
David Brown in Praia da Luz
Portuguese police investigating the abduction of Madeleine McCann are hunting for a balding man who is believed to have been seen dragging a girl to a marina in a town close to where she disappeared.
Detectives have not identified the man but have said that he is a suspect in the kidnapping of Madeleine from a holiday apartment on the Algarve on Thursday night.
Detectives have found evidence showing that the British girl was abducted, but have few clues as to who took her or where she is being held.
A police artist's impression of a balding man who was seen with a blonde girl similar to Madeleine shows just the back of his head. He is described as being white, 5ft 11in and is understood to have been wearing white trousers.
The man is believed to have been seen dragging the girl on a road leading to a marina in the town of Lagos, about 5 miles (8km) from Praia da Luz. Another witness is reported to have seen a girl struggling in the back of a car on a road leading from Praia da Luz.
However, it emerged yesterday that the border crossing into Spain, about 90 minutes' drive away, had not been informed of Madeleine's disappearance for at least ten hours.

The girl's relatives in Britain have complained that the Portuguese police have been uncommunicative and said that they had "played down" the kidnapping. However, Mr and Mrs McCann thanked the police on Saturday night. Mr McCann said: "We would like to thank everyone here in Portugal, the UK and elsewhere for all your support."

The founder of an international child protection group claimed yesterday that corruption and indifference among the Portuguese authorities hampered the country's investigation of paedophiles and child traffickers. Homayra Sellier, of Innocence in Danger, which was launched in 1999 on Unesco's initiative, speculated that Madeleine was taken either by an individual with mental health problems or by an organised child-trafficking gang.
"These people are criminals – somebody who did what they did with Madeleine is beyond being a paedophile," she said.

7 May

The Independant
news.independent.co.uk/europe<wbr></wbr>/article2519036.ece

Portugal prays for missing toddler as police investigation comes under attack
By Andy McSmith
Portugese worshippers in the holiday village of Praia da Luz rallied yesterday in an emotional show of support for the English couple whose infant daughter is missing.
Prayers were held for three-year-old Madeleine McCann during a Mother's Day service in the local church, with her parents Kate and Gerry McCann, who are Roman Catholics, in the congregation.
But there were recriminations in the Portugese media over the police's handling of the investigation in the first few hours after Madeleine's disappearance.
The Portugese daily Diario de Noticias claimed that border police were not told that a child had been kidnapped until about midday on Friday, more than 12 hours after Madeleine was reported missing.
As a member of the EU, Portugal has no border controls with Spain, and motorists can cross from one country to the other unchecked. The newspaper claimed that proper procedure would have been for Portugal's Judicial Police - the local equivalent of CID - to have tipped off the Borders and Aliens Service as soon as they knew that a child had been kidnapped.
Another paper, Correio de Manha, said the main border crossing from the Portuguese Algarve to Spain had no special controls in place until Saturday afternoon.
But the Portugese police believe that Madeleine is being held close to where she was kidnapped, and that she is alive. About 150 officers were continuing the search for her yesterday.
In the village church, the priest, Father Jose Manuel Pachedo, announced in English that there would be a prayer for Madeleine, and her family. Mrs McCann, who was in tears, was presented with a bunch of roses, marking Mother's Day, by an altar girl.
At the end of the service, attended by the British ambasador to Portugal, John Buck, a line of elderly women approached the McCanns to hug and kiss them. The couple were soon surrounded by a crowd of 30 well-wishers, many in tears.
In the UK, the distraught parents were criticised in internet chat rooms for allowing their children to be out of their sight. They were having dinner in a tapas bar 50 yards away when Madeleine disappeared, but were going back every half hour to check the apartment where their three children were sleeping.
Somebloggers taking part in discussions threads on the internet since the news broke have claimed that as well-paid professionals the couple should have known better than to leave the children unsupervised. Mr McCann is a consultant cardiologist at Glenfield Hospital, Leicester, where his wife is a GP.
They were vigorously defended yesterday by the head of the company that runs the resort where Madeleine was abducted. David Hopkins, managing director of Mark Warner, told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend: "The McCanns have done nothing that I'm sure many parents wouldn't have done in the same instance, which is whilst keeping a very close eye on their children who are not far away, go out and enjoy a meal on a holiday in a very safe environment."
Madeleine, from Rothley, Leicestershire, who will be four on Saturday, was snatched from her bed in a ground floor apartment. She was sharing a room with her two-year-old twin brother and sister. Her father checked the room at 9.30pm, and saw all three children asleep. When their mother checked half an hour later, the older girl was missing, and a window had been forced
Police said that witnesses saw a man with a girl who may have been Madeleine, and that they have an artists' impression of a suspect.
Portugese authorities were accused by an international child protection group yesterday of allowing high level corruption to impede investigations of paedophiles and child traffickers. Homayra Sellier, who founded Innocence in Danger, under Unesco auspices, in 1999, said that in Portugal "the corruption has gone so high that there's nothing we can do".
She said that her group, based in Switzerland, had tried to set up an office in Portugal between 2002 and 2004. "I stopped it because I thought I couldn't fight against a country where the people do not want to know the truth," she added.

Mothers' Day in Portugal, and a family pleads: Pray for our missing Madeleine
S. ROSS
THE parents of a three-year-old British girl abducted from a holiday beach resort in Portugal spoke yesterday of their hope that their missing daughter would be found safe.
Gerry and Kate McCann talked publicly after they attended a Portuguese church, to join prayers being said across the country for the safe return of Madeleine.
The couple took part in a Mothers' Day service in the Praia da Luz holiday resort in the Algarve where their daughter disappeared from their villa apartment on Thursday night.
Mr McCann, 38, said of the Catholic mass: "From today's service, the thing we are going to take from this is strength and courage and hope. We continue to hope for the best possible outcome from this for us and for Madeleine."
A tearful Mrs McCann, 38, clutching Madeleine's favourite pink teddy bear, which she has carried with her since her child's disappearance, said: "Gerry and I would just like to express our sincere gratitude and thanks to everybody, but particularly the local community here, who have offered so much support. We couldn't have asked for more. I just wanted to say thank you. Please continue to pray for Madeleine."
Mr McCann, a cardiologist, originally from Glasgow, and his wife, also a doctor, were dining in a tapas bar 50 yards away with friends, taking turns to check every half hour on Madeleine and her younger brother and sister, twins Sean and Amelia.
Madeleine was taken from the ground-floor apartment at the Mark Warner Ocean Club holiday village between 9:30pm and 10pm. Mrs McCann found that the outside shutter and window to Madeleine's room had been opened and her daughter was missing shortly before 10pm local time.
Detectives searching for Madeleine have said they are convinced the child is still alive, that they know the "prime suspect" and that she is being held close to the resort. Police also said they had an artist's impression of the suspect, which they were not releasing for fear of endangering Madeleine's life.
In the first official briefing on the case on Saturday, Guilhermino Encarnacão, director of the judicial police in the Faro region, said officers were working on the assumption Madeleine was being held between two to three miles from the resort. He said police had taken about 30 calls from potential witnesses and had created an artist's impression of a suspect. Some witnesses reported a black saloon car spotted at a supermarket 50 yards from the holiday village.
However, police sniffer dogs lost Madeleine's scent at the supermarket and CCTV cameras did not pick up images of her or her abductor.
There are fears that Madeleine may have been targeted by a paedophile. Police say the artist's impression has not been released in case the man panics and endangers the child.
Paul Luckman, owner and publisher of the Portugal News, aimed at English-speaking expats and holidaymakers, said of the detectives leading the hunt: "They have a level of local information you would probably describe as extraordinary. So when they say this, I think it is highly likely they have very, very firm information. They don't want to get it wrong in front of the world's press."
Yesterday, an intensive search was under way, involving hundreds of police officers and volunteers searching the holiday village and surrounding countryside. Officers on horseback were sent to search vast areas of shrubland surrounding the estate.
On Thursday night, the McCanns, from Rothley, Leicestershire, had immediately insisted their daughter had been abducted because there was evidence of a forced entry into the bedroom where she had been sleeping. The couple had told relatives they feared they were being watched in the hours leading up to the kidnapping.
Portuguese police initially treated her disappearance as a missing- person case, but on Saturday they confirmed they believed Madeleine had been kidnapped.Last night, the founder of the Switzerland-based group Innocence in Danger - launched in 1999 by UNESCO to counter child abuse and trafficking - criticised Portugal's record on bringing child abusers to justice. Homayra Sellier said: "The fact that the girl was kidnapped from her bed shows how bad things are."Portuguese newspapers reported yesterday that there had been poor co-ordination between police forces and the Foreigners and Frontiers Service, which is charged with controlling the country's borders.
However, police said on Saturday they believed Madeleine was still in Portugal. All airports, in Portugal and Spain, had been alerted and borders were under surveillance, they said. British police officers have also travelled to the Algarve to help.
Mr McCann's sister Philomena criticised the Portuguese police for initially "playing down" their response to the disappearance.
Speaking from her home in Glasgow, she said: "He [Mr McCann] thinks it's just too little, too late.
"It was hours before the local police turned up and we're talking two bobbies who totally downplayed the incident, and said Maddie had maybe just wandered off."

Distraught parents pray for return of daughter
By Catherine Shanahan and Sam Marsden

WHAT Kate McCann wanted most for Mother's Day was the safe return of her child.
During an emotional service yesterday as Portugal marked the holiday, the 39-year-old mother-of-three knelt and wept for Madeleine, who is missing since last Thursday.
In a tiny 16th-century church in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz, Kate and Gerry McCann were joined by family members, including Madeleine's Irish grandmother Ellen McCann, who is originally from Burtonport, Co Donegal. Prayers were offered for the little girl whom police believe was abducted.
During the service, Kate was presented with a bunch of five roses by 14-year-old altar girl Emily Seromenho, whose mother is English.
Father Jose Manuel Pacheco spoke briefly in English, saying: "We are here like all Sundays and today we have a very big intention, we want to be with this family, the family of Madeleine.

"We are with you, the parish is with you."
Mrs McCann, a GP in Leicester, carried a small pink, stuffed kitten which she has carried every time she has been seen in public since Madeleine's disappearance. As the service began she knelt silently holding the soft toy, kissing its head repeatedly.
Madeleine went missing from her family's rented holiday apartment in the Algarve village of Praia Da Luz on Thursday night while her parents were eating dinner less than a minute's walk away.
The couple had been making regular trips back to the apartment from a tapas restaurant opposite to check on Madeleine and their twins Sean and Amelie.

Initial reports suggested there had been a break-in but the resort administrators have claimed the parents left the French windows unlocked for access when checking their children.
Yesterday, a spokesperson for Mark Warner, the tour operator who runs the resort, said the family had spent a quiet day together.
Alex Woolsall said: "They went to church and today they are having a quiet time with the twins and the three family liaison officers who flew over from the UK."
He said many of the 90 families staying at the Mark Warner resort had joined in the search.
He said only one family had asked to be flown home since the abduction, but the tour operators were happy to accommodate anyone who wished to change travel plans.
He said the McCanns would remain at Praia da Luz indefinitely, until they received news of their daughter.
When asked if security had been stepped up at the resort since Madeleine's disappearance, Mr Woolsall said it was not the usual type of compound-like holiday-resort, "with CCTV and a big wall" but was more like a "Cornish fishing village" where people could rent villages and apartments.
He said there was a huge police presence, however, since the abduction.
Mr Woolsall said the company had flown out two specially-trained counsellors following the abduction, as well as their British director of operations and the managing director.
"And the Mark Warner incident team is looking after staff and family," he said.
He said the police had released no new information.
Detectives in the Algarve confirmed they are investigating if Madeleine was abducted for sexual abuse.
Officers have a prime suspect but are not releasing any details for fear of endangering her life.

Meanwhile, the founder of the Switzerland-based group Innocence in Danger yesterday criticised Portugal's record on bringing child abusers to justice;
Homayra Sellier categorised it as a country where "the corruption has gone so high that there's nothing we can do".
She said: "The fact that the girl (Madeleine) was kidnapped from her bed shows how bad things are."
Gerry McCann, a consultant cardiologist, appealed over the weekend for help. A colleague of Madeleine's mother has
offered a £100,000 (€147,000) reward.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Portugese police believe three-year-old Madeleine McCann has been abducted and have a suspect in mind, a police chief said today. The toddler vanished from her bed at a holiday resort when her parents were in a restaurant only 40 yards away.

Guilhermino Encarnacao, director of the judicial police in the Faro region, said they were hopeful she is still alive and believe she is still in Portugal.

Vanished: Madeleine McCann, three, was asleep next to her twin brother and sister

The three-year-old's great uncle, Brian Kennedy said the family "fear the worst but we are hoping for the best."

British Ambassador John Buck was with Madeleine's family this afternoon. He confirmed that three family liaison officers from Leicestershire Police had now arrived and were with the family.

Kate and her husband Gerry, a consultant cardiologist, have told family and friends they suspect their daughter was snatched while her two-year-old twin brother and sister were sound asleep in cots on either side of her.

Madeleine, who was born by IVF treatment, disappeared from the family's ground-floor holiday apartment at the 'family friendly' Mark Warner holiday complex in the Praia da Luz resort as her parents ate at a tapas restaurant close by.

The child's aunt, Trish Cameron, yesterday described the frantic telephone call she received after the couple discovered their daughter was missing around ten o'clock on Thursday night.

"It was my young brother Gerry distraught on the phone, breaking his heart. He said: 'Madeleine's been abducted, she's been abducted'.

"They kept going back to check the kids every half hour. The restaurant was only 40 yards away. He went back at nine o'clock to check the children. They were all sound asleep, windows shut, shutters shut."

Kate then went over to the two-bedroom ground-floor apartment and 'came out screaming', said Mrs Cameron. 'The door was lying open, the window in the bedroom and the shutters had been jemmied open.
"Nothing had been touched in the apartment, no valuables taken, no passports. They think someone must have come in the window and gone out the door with her."

Portuguese police yesterday sealed off the three-storey block and forensic specialists fingerprinted the ground floor window of the McCanns' apartment. All airports, ports and border posts have been alerted.
But despite a massive search throughout the night by police, sniffer dogs and dozens of holidaymakers, there has been no sign of Madeleine, wearing white pyjamas when her parents put her to bed with twins Amelie and Sean in the bougainvillea-clad apartment. scroll down for more

Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry McCann

Intriguingly, a Briton who runs a company in the Algarve has told police he spotted a couple carrying a young child early yesterday.

George Burke, from Liverpool, was driving home from nearby Lagos around 6am when he caught the two people in his car headlights. "I couldn't see them clearly because it was dark and windy. They scurried down a side road and out of sight."

Last night, as police helicopters and launches scoured the sea, beach and village, Madeleine's family issued a statement which read: "This is a particularly difficult time for the family and we are all comforting each other. At this time all the family's focus is in assisting the UK and in particular the Portuguese authorities in securing Madeleine's safe return."

scroll down for more

A family torn apart: Parents Kate and Gerry McCann with Madeleine and the twins

Ray of light: Madeleine is described as active and chatty

Mr McCann, a consultant cardiologist at Leicester's Glenfield Hospital, and his wife Kate, a GP, had chosen the up-market resort because it was family-friendly.

A friend of the couple, Jill Renwick, said: "This is the first time they have done this. They are very, very anxious parents and very careful."

She said Madeleine - known as Maddy - was 'gorgeous, active and chatty and intelligent, not shy. She is four next week and starts school this year.'

The McCanns, who have been married eight years and recently moved into a £600,000 detached house in Rothley, a suburb of Leicester, were on holiday with a group of fellow doctors and other young children, paying around £1,600 for a week.

In the evenings, Mark Warner offers a drop-in creche service enabling customers to leave young children with staff while they enjoy a relaxing dinner.

Customers may also pay for individual baby-sitters but the McCanns, both 38, chose not to use either service, instead taking it in turns regularly to check their three young children themselves from the restaurant on the other side of a swimming pool from their apartment.

After Mrs McCann raised the alarm, Mark Warner said it immediately launched a search of all areas within the complex and the peaceful, 1,000-population fishing village.

Resort manager John Hill said: "As well as staff, we had guests helping, also the majority of the Praia da Luz village.

"Police were informed at the same time as the alarm was raised. They arrived about 10.45pm and after statements were taken from the family police decided to escalate the situation."

Paul Moyes, 47, from Cheshire, and his wife Susan own a holiday apartment in the same black as the McCanns. He said: "There was a knock on the door at about 11.30 from a hotel guest telling us a girl was missing and asking us to help in the search.

"There were uniformed police, plain clothes and even off-duty local officers. The search went on all night, people were using torches.

"We searched the beach and the hotel grounds with scores of people. Quite a few of us own holiday homes here so it's a close-knit community and something like this is terribly shocking." Michael Hannar, from Pontefract, Yorkshire, owns a ground floor apartment close to the McCanns.

He said: "I don't believe a three-year-old child would have been strong enough to open the window or shutter.

"Mine are difficult to open, especially if the window is fully closed. The shutter is also difficult to open."

Family friend Mrs Renwick said the McCanns - who met while training at the Western Infirmary at Glasgow - felt let down by police.

"I spoke to them this morning and they said the police had done nothing overnight and they felt as if they'd been left on their own."

Resort manager Mr Hill said: "We're in a sleepy fishing village and manpower for the police, I agree, was low at the time. After the CID were involved more police were called."

In Leicester, neighbours spoke of the loving, protective parents.

Tracey Horsefield, a 32-year-old nurse, said: "They never let those children out on their own. I have never seen Madeleine without her parents."

Mr McCann's mother Eileen, 67, from Glasgow, said the couple had been desperate to have children and eventually underwent IVF treatment.

"Madeleine made their lives complete when she came along. The three children were very close and I don't know how they will cope - how any of them will."

Madeleine's uncle Michael Healy said: "There has been some negative spin put on this, with people criticising them for leaving the kids.

"But it's nonsense, they were close by and eating within sight of where the children were and checking on them. No one was rip-roaring drunk."

One notable feature of the Madeleine McCann case was the number of supposed sightings of the little girl all over the world. Here are some of them:

By Caroline Gammell6:30AM BST 06 Aug 2008

Dorset – May 4, 2007

Malcolm Smith saw a "very upset" little girl wearing a pink top with a tall man at the Moonfleet Manor Hotel in Fleet, near Weymouth, Dorset.

Alvor, Portugal – May 5, 2007

Two British holidaymakers saw a drunken-looking man emerge from a white van cradling a child of about three at Alvor in the Algarve. Retirees Richard and Susan McCluskey, from Sunderland, also witnessed a "worried-looking" blonde woman running towards the van.

A Portuguese woman called UK free phone police line Crimestoppers to report seeing a child who looked "just like" Madeleine with two women at a Lisbon subway station.

Gatwick Airport – May 8, 2007

Mary Jones contacted Leicestershire Police to report seeing Madeleine at Gatwick Airport.
She said she was "convinced" the child she saw - accompanied by a woman whose dark bob haircut "could well have been a wig" - was the missing girl. She speculated that Madeleine could have been at Gatwick en route for Marrakech in Morocco.

Spain – May 5 to 17, 2007

Leicestershire Police requested via Interpol that the Spanish authorities investigate a series of possible sightings across Spain.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Portuguese police have allegedly asked UK forensics experts to examine evidence to see if Madeleine McCann might have previously been drugged, as they turn their attentions on the apartment next door to the one from which she vanished, it has been claimed.

There is speculation her corpse may have been weighed down with rocks and dumped in the sea or even destroyed in an incinerator.

The new claims, in the Evening Standard, centre on the apartment neighbouring the McCanns' and police are said to believe it may hold the key to the whereabouts of any body in the hours after she was reported missing.

They also follow reports in the newspaper France Soir that Madeleine allegedly died from an overdose of sleeping pills.

Further claims in the Evening Standard take the theory one step further suggesting that the Forensic Science Service in Birmingham has been asked to look for evidence that she had been given drugs on the night she went missing and on earlier occasions.

The McCanns have always emphatically denied that they ever sedated any of their children.

Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry have been formally named as suspects, but police have admitted that they do not have enough evidence to charge them.

Mrs McCann, 39, is expected to be recalled to Portugal in the next few days to face further questioning as police work on the theory that she may have accidentally killed her daughter while her husband helped cover up the crime.

The couple have vehemently denied these claims.

But the couple, who spent Friday in London consulting lawyers about their arguido status, have been told the case against them is weak if a body is not found.

A senior Portuguese police source said there was very little for detectives to pin on the McCanns.

"We have nothing concrete," he told Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas. "There are a lot of indications but without more information it is impossible to determine what happened in those four vital hours in the case between 6pm and 10pm.

"Even if the blood and traces gathered in the car or in the apartment were confirmed to correspond to 100 per cent of the little girl's DNA, that wouldn't prove anything."

Madeleine disappeared from the family's holiday apartment 5A in the Mark Warner Ocean Club resort on May 3.

For several weeks forensic scientists in Birmingham have been examining bodily fluids and hair found in the back of the couple's Renault Scenic hired 25 days after their daughter went missing.

As the investigation continued, Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias said police had admitted Madeleine's body "may no longer exist".

A source told the paper: "One theory is that the body may have been thrown in a bag filled with stones into the high sea from a yacht in Lagos marina."

Mr Murat, a 33-year-old property developer, is the only other named suspect, or arguido in the case. Family friends of the McCanns have demanded to know why he is not facing the same amount of scrutiny as Madeleine's parents.

They insist he was involved in the preliminary search for the little girl while he maintains he was at home with his mother in their villa 150 yards from the McCanns' apartment.

The Portuguese authorities are still trying to track down Mrs McCann's personal diary to gain an insight into her psychological state before and after Madeleine disappeared. It is understood they have photocopies of extracts and are now trying to get the papers formally accepted as evidence.

The investigating judge Pedro Miguel dos Anjos Frias, has until next Thursday to authorise any further police activity in the case against the McCanns after being handed a 4,000 page file by the public prosecutor last Tuesday.

Police are on standby to carry out searches along the coast to the west of Praia da Luz and attention has also focused on the area surrounding the town's church.

In the UK, Mr McCann's sister Philomena said the couple and extended family would be prepared to sell their homes to help foot the legal bill to clear their names.

Mr and Mrs McCann have appointed lawyers in Portugal and the UK after being named official suspects in their daughter's disappearance.

The couple's £640,000 home in Rothley, Leicestershire, has been besieged by the world's media since the McCanns flew home last Sunday.

Their battle to shift suspicion has been hampered by the fact that they are not allowed to hire their own private investigator.

Under Portuguese law, no independent inquiry can be carried out while a criminal investigation is underway.

It is only when a person has been charged with a crime that they are entitled to appoint their own experts – such as forensic specialists – which have to be approved by the court.

•Kate McCann agrees to checks on twins' welfare
•Portuguese police want to quiz her for third time
•Tycoons refuse to fund McCanns' legal defence
•Fingerprinting pioneer to help McCanns with DNA test
The mother of Madeleine McCann is to be interviewed again by police investigating her daughter's disappearance.
Portuguese detectives could travel to Britain to quiz Mrs McCann. She was interviewed twice last week and formally declared a suspect after police told her they believed she had killed.
Kate will face 40 key questions about the night her daughter disappeared from their Algarve holiday apartment on May 3, her relationship with the four-year-old and her movements since Madeleine went missing, respected Portuguese daily Publico claimed.Scroll down for more...

Kate McCann arrives home in her car today

The development came as Kate McCann has invited social services to check on the welfare of missing Madeleine's twin brother and sister.
She is expected to be visited shortly after telling social workers she wanted them to see that two-year-olds Sean and Amelie are not at risk.Scroll down for more...

A distressed Mrs McCann, 39, today briefly left the family home in Rothley, Leicestershire, to collect the twins after a family friend took them for a walk.
Relatives have gathered in the village to support her and husband, Gerry.
Mr McCann's older brother John, 48, who was with the couple at their home today, confirmed the plans. He said: "Kate has invited social services to make sure everything was OK, that was at her behest."
Leicestershire County Council said they could not comment on individual cases.
A Portuguese judge has signed a warrant instructing British police to seize items of evidence from the home of Kate and Gerry McCann.
The police, who could visit the McCanns as early as today, are expected to take Mrs McCann's private diaries, her husband's laptop computer and Madeleine's 'cuddle cat' toy.
Two friends of the McCanns, who were with the couple on the night Madeleine disappeared, are also expected to be questioned again.
A distressed Mrs McCann, 39, today briefly left the family home in Rothley, Leicestershire, to collect the twins after a family friend took them for a walk.
Relatives have gathered in the village to support her and husband, Gerry.
Mr McCann's older brother John, 48, who was with the couple at their home today, confirmed the plans. He said: "Kate has invited social services to make sure everything was OK, that was at her behest."
Leicestershire County Council said they could not comment on individual cases.Scroll down for more...

Mrs McCann was rarely seen without Madeleine's favourite toy, Cuddle Cat, after her daughter disappeared

The prosecutors yesterday submitted an "emergency" request to a judge to authorise commandeering the ring-bound journals and the Apple Mac which Mr McCann uses to send emails and update his internet blog.
Police believe something Mrs McCann has written in her diary could unlock the mystery to the four-year-old's disappearance.
Mrs McCann started the diary at her sister-in-law's suggestion to record how the family had battled to look for Madeleine - with the idea that she would show it to her daughter once she was found.
Philomena McCann explained: "I asked Kate to keep this journal because at first the Portugese police were doing very little."
She also revealed that Madeleine's mum washed the little girl's Cuddle Cat within days of her disappearance - and again two months ago.
Police are believed to want to confiscate Madeleine's toys, including the favourite Cuddle Cat, which her mother has cradled since her disappearance.
She said the first wash was to clean off the sun cream and sand of the holiday.
Then it was soiled by Mrs McCann carrying it around all the time.Scroll down for more...

Kate and Gerry McCann with their twins Amelie and Sean at the park yesterday

Kate McCann and daugher Amelie on their way from their Leicestershire home to a playground

"It would be extremely distressing for Kate because she has seen it as a symbol of her daughter since she went missing," she said.
"Why on earth do they ask for the toys now? Why didn't they think of this before?"
The toy has already been tested by scientists but further tests are expected to be more stringent.
Police sources have questioned Mrs McCann's decision to wash the toy so soon after her daughter disappeared.
"It's the last thing I'd expect a mother who is devastated at losing her child to do," said a former Scotland Yard detective.
Yesterday it emerged that lawyers in Britain acting for the McCanns have advised them the Portuguese authorities will struggle to press charges that stick.
A close friend said: "The legitimate question to ask Portuguese police is: 'Where is the body? Where's the evidence that Madeleine is dead?'."
The friend said the McCanns' new legal team, based in London, had been working around the clock to "get up to speed on the case".Scroll down for more...

Gerry McCann and his two-year-old twin son Sean

The couple's Portuguese lawyer, Carlos Pinto de Abreu, has hit out at his country's judicial system in a scathing interview with a local newspaper in which he declared: "Justice in Portugal is slow and incapable of producing proof."
Friends of the McCanns believe they are the victims of a sinister campaign to frame them for Madeleine's disappearance after police botched the search to find their abducted little girl.
The 39-year-old doctors have strenuously denied ever harming Madeleine and are devastated the hunt for her has been overshadowed by an attempt to "set them up".
But in two days of police interviews in Portimao last week, detectives alleged there was damning evidence that Madeleine had been in the Renault Scenic they hired 25 days after she disappeared. They alleged bodily fluids, blood and hair corresponding to Madeleine's DNA had been found in the boot.
Judge Pedro Miguel dos Anjos Frias is now sifting through a 4,000-page police dossier as Madeleine's parents face an agonising wait to learn if they will be charged.
He could take "weeks" to study the contents of ten lever arch files, according to a friend of the McCanns, who said: "Our understanding is there's no filtering process whatsoever - everything is in there.
"The judge has had the kitchen sink thrown at him."
The judge will make a decision within ten days on key requests made by the prosecutor, Jose Cunha de Magalhaes e Meneses.Scroll down for more...

McCann's lawyers believe it will be almost impossible to press charges without finding the corpse

These requests have not been made public, but are things Mr Meneses now believes need to be done to complete the case.
A source in Portugal claimed that one of the requests was to bring Kate McCann back to be requestioned.
And the whitewashed church in Praia da Luz that became a poignant focus of the McCanns' campaign is expected to be searched, with the judge present.
It still has yellow and green Madeleine ribbons on the pews and altar.
Roads around the church, which had deep holes dug by workmen at the time Madeleine vanished, could also be excavated.
Portuguese sources said the prosecutor wanted police to re-interview the couple's friends and family.
Detectives in the Algarve believe somebody could have helped them dispose of Madeleine's body, although the friends with whom they were on holiday have furiously denied such a "hurtful" conspiracy.
The couple were declared "arguidos", or formal suspects, during police questioning in Portimao last Friday.
They flew out of the country to their home in Rothley two days later.
Last night the McCanns got a boost when the police case appeared to be undermined by a pensioner who is potentially a key witness.
Pamela Fenn, 81, lives above the apartment where Madeleine disappeared and is reported to have told police she heard Madeleine screaming below.
But yesterday she broke her silence to say it was "absolute rubbish" she had made any such claims to police. Mrs Fenn said: "I didn't even know that family was in there."
Sir Alec Jeffreys, the inventor of DNA fingerprinting, said he was prepared to act as an expert witness for the McCanns.
He stressed that DNA matches on their own did not establish a person's innocence or guilt.
Sir Alec told BBC TV's Newsnight: "There are no genetic characters in Madeleine that are not found in at least one other member of the family.
"So then you have an incomplete DNA profile that could raise a potential problem in assigning a profile to Madeleine given that all other members of that family would have been in that car."

In the Diario de Noticias, sources linked to the case are quoted as saying that the police suspected Kate McCann was “mentally unbalanced” and that Gerry McCann had admitted to giving a sedative to Madeleine. “One of the lines of investigation is that the child was given too much medication,” it reported.

Showing more restraint, the main leader in the upmarket daily Publico calls for calm, reminding readers that the judicial process must be left to take its course. However, it argues that the case has reached a point of no return. “The Portuguese police (criticised already, even in this paper) is risking its credibility irreversibly. Either it has some trump cards up its sleeve to make us understand and justify the hypothesis that everyone hopes is not true. Or it is shooting in the dark and ruining its image, not just domestically but in front of the world, which has seen this case spread like an open wound.”

Nicolau Santos, a columnist in Expresso, defends some of the accusations against the local police. “On the one side, the Portuguese media is putting pressure on the police for results, to find the guilty, to discover the girl. Meanwhile the English media insinuate that the Portuguese police is incompetent and hasn’t conducted the investigations in the best possible way. In the middle of such pressure the police don’t react in the best way.” He adds: “We are not in the middle ages, where they burnt witches at the stake based on flimsy evidence. But if we don’t take note we’ll get to that point ­ transmitted live on TV, of course.”
In the tabloid Correio da Manha, columnist Octavio Ribeiro takes aim at the British press pack to make a wider point about national characteristics. He says the media has been overly enthusiastic in believing the McCanns’ story from the beginning.
“The behaviour of the English press in the Maddy case is the symptom of a serious disease. The way that the mass of British papers ­ and not just the tabloids ­ militantly kept to a fixed idea of what had happened, goes against the principles of good journalism.
“I remember the hysteria about the ‘secret dossier’ that was the basis of the decision to invade Iraq. And Blair: safe, sound and popular too after it was revealed as a deception.
“The way that Maddie has until now been treated by the English press shows that any agile press spokesman has an easy job.”
On a lighter note, in the Diario de Noticias, Ferreira Fernandes, writes that the latest Portuguese contribution to world culture ­ after the custard cream ­ is the word “arguida”, which has been the subject of articles in the international press.
He explains the word by saying it is a typical fudge. “It is accusing someone and then saying ­ ‘don’t take it badly, mate’. You can’t get more Portuguese than that. The world arguida has conquered the world. Now all that’s left is to convince the judges.”

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Fionnuala Sweeney in London. Welcome to CNN's INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENTS, where we turn the spotlight on the media.
This week, the parents of missing Madeleine McCann go on a PR offensive. We look at their efforts to control the direction of the story.

The news from Iraq. We speak to two time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist John Burns.

And later, he's back in the headlines. The reporting frenzy over O.J. Simpson.

First, the media and the case of missing Madeleine McCann, a story that has dominated countless column mentions and television news bulletin in Portugal and Britain for more than four months. With few details released by authorities, much of the reporting has been based on leaks or speculation.

Now the parents of the child have recruited a new family spokesman to help present their side of the story. Emily Chang reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EMILY CHANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kate and Gerry McCann follow closely behind their new front man, as he makes his first statement outside their home.

CLARENCE MITCHELL, MCCANN FAMILY SPOKESMAN: And I feel so strongly that they are the innocent victims of a heinous crime.

CHANG: This on yet another day when speculation about what happened to Madeleine continues to swirl and media coverage of the case goes round the clock.

(on camera): What do you have to say about speculation that Kate and Gerry are somehow involved in Madeleine's disappearance?

MITCHELL: It's just not true to suggest that they harmed their daughter. They love their daughter as they love their other twins. And to somehow suggest, even indirectly, that they were responsible for her disappearance or even her death, if you know them, you realize that is just ludicrous.

CHANG: In his former role as media advisor to the British government, Mitchell spent time with the McCanns in Portugal, just after Madeleine went missing. Sometimes he said up to 14 hours a day.

MITCHELL: They didn't expect some of the coverage to turn the way it did. And they are relieved to be home now. They - and as a result, they're getting stronger. They - today, they're quite positive in fact. Of course, there's the constant reminder that Madeleine isn't there, but you know, they are dealing with that in their own way.

CHANG: And Mitchell says they will continue to do everything they can to find Madeleine.

Emily Chang, CNN, in Rovely, England.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SWEENEY: Debate 12 over how the media has covered the Madeleine McCann story. To assess that, I'm joined in the studio by Rita Jordao, the London correspondent with Portugal's Journal de Noticias and FIC TV and Charlie Beckett, the director of POLIS, the journalism think tank of the London School of Economics.

First of all, Rita, as a Portuguese journalist trying to cover this side of the story in Britain, what has been your experience?

RITA JORDAO, CORRESPONDENT, JORNAL DE NOTICIAS & SIC TV: I think it's been very hard for British journalists in Portugal. It's been very hard for Portuguese journalists over here because you're Portuguese and because this story has become so big.

It became quite difficult for Portuguese journalists to cover the story and to get information, especially from official sources, even though, I mean, what is an official source in this case, we don't any more. But we do. Now with Clarence Mitchell, things seem to be becoming a little bit easier for journalists. Now we finally have information regularly. And hopefully, we will. And that's - up until now, it's been very difficult, very hard to get any information.

SWEENEY: Clarence Mitchell, of course, being the person who was appointed initially by the government as the conduit to help the McCanns with their publicity that now actually has resigned his job. And there has been, has there not, Charlie Beckett, a complete distinct change in the coverage of the McCanns in terms of what they're putting forward for their defense through the media since he came on board full time again just a few days ago?

CHARLIE BECKETT, DIRECTOR, POLIS: Well, I think Clarence is a great appointment all around. He's a very respected and a straight experienced reporter.

So he's going to have the sympathy of the news media in Britain, but also the international media. But I think he's also going to have the respect of the wider public. This is somebody who's trusted so from the McCanns point of view. He's a very good appointment. And it may bring some clarity.

But it's - in a sense, just another part of what has been a whole sort of public relations exercise. I don't mean that in a disparaging way. What I mean is that this has been extraordinary media event from the Day One. And in a sense, quite rightly, the McCanns have attempted to, if you like, use the media and control it so that they don't end up as victims of the media.

SWEENEY: And how effective has doing that been for them?

BECKETT: Well, I think it's the old adage. You know, those that live by the media can, if you like, die by the media. It's a very dangerous game to play. But I think from their point of view, they would say, look, they've been as honest as they can be. They've been as accessible as they can be. And they've tried to tell their side of the story. And I think that's all that you can expect from people embroiled in such an appalling situation.

SWEENEY: Rita Jordao, as a Portuguese journalist, do you feel that the media in your country correctly judged how the story was going and reported how the story was going?

JORDAO: I think it's been very difficult for the Portuguese media. I mean, even though we're used to dealing with the way the Portuguese police operate in the country, in this case, it's - the story has become international from day one. It's a Sky story from day one. And therefore, the Portuguese police kind of got a bit - the Portuguese press, sorry, kind of got a bit lost amongst this whole story.

I mean, there's no official information. Everybody needs to get something new today, because that's press. And the newspapers want to get, even if it's the small bit of information that the others don't have.

SWEENEY: But most of the information was coming from leaks in the Portuguese authorities to the Portuguese media. And then, hence, you know, reported in the British media.

JORDAO: Yes, but when we call sources within the Portuguese police, I don't know exactly what we're talking about. This could be a clean (INAUDIBLE). This could be an accountant that works for the Policia (INAUDIBLE). We don't really know who these sources are. And especially for some of the more tabloids of newspapers.

Do we trust them? I don't know.

SWEENEY: At the end of the day, it did lead to Madeleine McCann's parents being named formal suspects. And that was always something that was more or less consistently reported in the run-up to that in the Portuguese media.

How do you think the British media have covered this in the very twists and turns, one has noticed changes in temperament and tone?

BECKETT: Well, I think in defense of the tabloid British press, you could argue that the early criticism of them that they were going over the top on this story was actually wrong. This was an incredible story. There's another criticism of them, which was that they were too pro the McCanns. And also, that they were too hostile to the Portuguese police.

Well, I suspect that they may have been right to have been critical of the Portuguese police, not just because of the investigation, but in terms of the way that this relatively small regional police force was completely unprepared for the way they should or could have handled the British media.

SWEENEY: Well, there is something about the British media, the pack abroad that's rather frightening for the inexperienced...

BECKETT: It's not unknowing. We know that by now. Most international authorities should know that by now. And in a sense, the Portuguese press has not been greatly more distinguished than the British tabloids. So it's not just a British disease.

And I think what's interesting is the way - whether the story is part a legal problem the Portuguese police have, but the way that the story has been allowed to spiral out of control, that would never have happened in this country. Big cases like the (INAUDIBLE) cases. So the police have a strategy...

SWEENEY: Yes.

BECKETT: ...for trying to manage media speculation.

JORDAO: I think international factor is very important here. And I think there's been a rivalry between the Portuguese press and the British press. And that's what spans a lot of things, because whilst the British press was pointing a finger at the Portuguese police, the Portuguese press was pointing the finger at the McCanns. And therefore, and because that added to the fact that there was no official information, people need to - or the press needs to pick out little beyond little details.

I'll give you the simple example. In Portugal, for instance, the name McCann became almost an obsession. And some Portuguese journalists thought because everybody believed that the McCanns have got a lot of influence in Downing Street somehow.

It kind of became an obsession. We need to find out who these...

SWEENEY: People.

JORDAO: ...who these people are. We need to find out whether the link is. And there's been so many lies...

SWEENEY: Yes.

JORDAO: ...printed in the last couple of weeks.

SWEENEY: I suspect they'll be a lot of doctorates done on this in the future. And indeed, more as time spent by us looking after it in the next few weeks and months as it evolves.

Rita Jordao, Charlie Beckett, thank you both very much indeed.

Still to come on INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENTS, reporting from a war zone. We speak to Pulitzer Prize winning journalist John Burns about his climb in Iraq and the challenges that lie ahead. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SWEENEY: Welcome back. For the past five years, Iraq has been his base. As Baghdad bureau chief for "The New York Times," John Burns has witnessed events leading up to the war and during the ongoing occupation. His work over the years has earned him two Pulitzer Prizes. One in 1993 for his coverage of the war in both Bosnia Herzokovnia, and then in 1997 for his reporting on the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Now John Burns is taking on a new challenge in what hopefully will be a more peaceful posting as "The New York Times" London bureau chief. John Burns joins me now.

Welcome to Britain, John Burns. I wonder, as you leave Iraq, what your thoughts are about the state of the country there.

JOHN BURNS, NEW YORK TIMES: Well, it looked pretty dire, I have to say. We all hoped, of course, journalists have hearts. And we all hoped that we would see a turnaround, things turning for the better.

There has been some improvement as General Petraeus reported in Washington. But overall, the prospects do not look good.

SWEENEY: And without delving too much into your personal life, is it the kind of story in Iraq that you would like to have seen through? Or do you believe there may not be any end to this ongoing situation?

BURNS: Well, five years is a long time to be in a place like that. I think I felt, and "The New York Times" felt, it was probably best for a change. And whilst I would love to have seen the war through, and my heart aches for Iraq, now I'm gone, there was no way of knowing, as the people in the United States know only too well, how long this could go on.

It could be another five years or more before American troops are finally withdrawn. And that would have obviously been too long.

So one has to make that kind of a wise judgment at certain point about how long to stay at the gaming table. And for me, that point came at the end of the summer.

SWEENEY: And into - being at the gaming table, how did it work logistically? Did you go in for periods of time and then come out for a bit of a break?

BURNS: Yes, we do. We take fairly generous breaks. We tend to stay on assignment in Iraq for, in my case, usually three, four, sometimes five months at a time.

And of course, we're pretty bunkered down there. And you really need to feel the need for a break for some fresh air, and for a golf course after that. So - and the "New York Times" has been very generous with us, as have most, I must say, Western media.

But all the same, I've spent - I would say three-quarters of the last five years in Baghdad. And it's a quite a wearing experience. But it's also, of course, an absolutely overwhelming experience, both emotionally and professionally.

SWEENEY: In terms of calibrating the story in Iraq, given that you've covered Bosnia Herzokovnia and the Taliban in Afghanistan, is there a distinction to be made between the three?

BURNS: Oh, yes, I think so. I think the two principle distinctions are the degree to which this weighs on the United States, the Taliban and Afghanistan was a big story. But I don't think there has been a bigger story, certainly not since Vietnam in my career, which now is running on towards 40 years in this business than Iraq. That's the first thing.

The second thing is in terms of protracted hazard for a journalist, Iraq is in a different league. There are episodic hazards of the kind of people encountered in Chechnya and Darfur. But for the most part, there aren't resident bases there. There are not bureaus in those places. People come and go rather quickly.

In Baghdad, you embed. You stay there.

SWEENEY: And at what point when you're on a tour of duty there, do you realize that it's time to leave? I mean, do you know yourself the warning signals in your head?

BURNS: No, I don't think you do, actually. I think a large responsibility for that rests with editors, because I think the sorts of changes, and I'm talking now about not so much things I've observed in myself, but have observed in others. I think some of the changes that people undergo when they're subjected to protracted stress of that kind and removal from anything like a normal life are quite negative. And that's a very good reason for getting out and returning to a more normal life.

We've all found, I find it too, the adjustment to normality strangely challenging. I've been saying in a glib way that I've found war a great deal easier to handle than peace.

Partly, that's because of the - something that is professionally very obvious. And that is this war is so dramatic, it marches under the front page all the time, affects the interests of the United States to the core, and thus, the story in some respects writes itself.

When you leave a story like that, for a story of importance, but one which is not so obviously dramatic and so compelling, you have to be a lot more imaginative in calibrating the story and deciding indeed what is the story. And that's the challenge that faces me here in England.

SWEENEY: Well, unfortunately, we're out of time. We have to leave it there, but John Burns, as always, thank you very much for joining us.

And still to come on INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENTS, O.J.'s back, back before the courts that is. Back in the headlines. We examine the media's obsession with the former U.S. football star when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SWEENEY: Welcome back. An alleged robbery at a Las Vegas hotel wouldn't usually generate wall to wall media coverage in the U.S., but when it involves fallen NFL star O.J. Simpson, it seems we just can't get enough.

Simpson faces 11 charges over his involvement in an alleged robbery and kidnapping involving sports memorabilia he says was stolen from him. He was freed on bail on Wednesday, but the arrests have sparked a media circus reminiscent of the reporting frenzy of the early 1990s. That's when Simpson was tried and acquitted of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman in what was described as the trial of the century.

O.J. Simpson is due before the courts again on October 22nd. But the story is unlikely to disappear from the news radar between now and then. To help us make sense of it all, I'm joined by Howard Kurtz, media correspondent with "The Washington Post" and host of CNN's "Reliable Sources."

Well, I think an article you wrote earlier in the week, Howard, talks about the media squeeze more juice out of O.J. Really it is round 2 again.

HOWARD KURTZ, WASHINGTON POST: Round 2, d,j. vu, time war, take your pick. You know, this is a legitimate story. O.J. Simpson is the most famous murder defendant of our generation. A lot of people think he literally got away with murder in that case involving his ex-wife and her friend.

And for him to be resident behind bars in a bizarre alleged robbery attempt is absolutely legitimate news. But after the first two or three days when there weren't many new facts to report, television - cable television in particular here in the States, just went wild getting every lawyer, prosecutor, psychologist they could find, slapping them in the chair, and letting them argue about O.J.

SWEENEY: And I think as you put it in this article at the start, you wrote moments after President Bush announced his nominee for attorney general, the cable networks still put him for an old flame. O.J. was back. What does that say about the media obsession with celebrity in the United States?

KURTZ: Well, it's fascinating because O.J. Simpson, that case in 1994 and 1995 really ushered in the era of television fixated on celebrities and crime and sensationalism, not that this never existed before. But CNN's televising of that murder trial showed that it was ratings gold for television. So...

SWEENEY: And of course, it was the only...

KURTZ: ...all the other...

SWEENEY: ...network at the time that was a cable network - CNN.

KURTZ: Exactly. But now we have more. And we have blogs and websites devoted to this sort of thing. And so here we are 12 or 13 years later, a lot of celebrity scandals later. I mean, you know, Britney and Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan are all big news on cable whenever they get into trouble. So O.J. is kind of like the golden oldies. Everybody could just open the rolodex and get their favorite legal commentators on the air and wallow in this once again, never mind that, you know, in the great scheme of things, country at war, economy in trouble, housing market great difficulty, it is not that important. But it has certainly grabbed the attention of everybody who puts on a television show.

SWEENEY: But there is some doubt, is there not, about whether or not public interest will be sustained as this trial continues like it was in the original O.J. - his original court case in 1993-94?

KURTZ: Sure. I think there's no question that there was an initial public fascination with this latest round involving Simpson, if only because this idea of him being accused of armed robbery, of going into a hotel room, and trying to get sports memorabilia back, that he claimed actually belonged to him, it's just so strange. And it was hard to unravel.

Plus, you had an audiotape. So all the networks could play again and again, bleeping out the expletives. O.J. saying up against the wall. Nobody leaves this room. I mean, you couldn't write a bad Hollywood movie that had elements like this.

But the question is after a week or two when there isn't a lot of new developments, is the public really going to be interested? Or are the media just going to beat this thing to death?

Now this poll was conducted about a week before Simpson's recent arrest. So it still shows that it's very much on the radar of American public opinion.

But Howard, if I may move on in the time we have left, Dan Rather, the very famous CBS News anchor since retired, has filed a $70 million breach of contract lawsuit against his former network. What does that tell you? I mean, he left in rather dubious circumstances over an unsubstantiated report about President Bush's Vietnam War record, but is this a surprise?

KURTZ: It's an absolute shock. I mean, look, I knew - everybody knew that Dan Rather was mad at CBS for not renewing his contract. This was after - some time after he stepped down as the anchor after a quarter century coming into American homes.

And we also kind of had the impression that he had never had quite given up on that story, widely discredited, disputed documents from 30 years ago that he still believed that he was right in charging that President Bush had received favorable treatment from the National Guard during the Vietnam era.

But to turn around and sue the company that he worked for for 44 years, to drag this into court, to make all kinds of charges against CBS management claiming they were cow towing to the Bush White House in letting him go, just shows how extraordinarily bitter Dan Rather is toward his old network, and that he sees this litigation as an attempt somehow, some way to get some measure of vindication on this story that really kind of tarnished his reputation.

SWEENEY: Howard Kurtz with "The Washington Post." Thank you very much indeed for joining us.

And that's all for this edition of INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENTS. Tune again next time for another look at how the media are handling the big issues.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

GM These sort of questions and the publishing of them are nonsense. And we shouldn't be giving them the time of day. There is absolutely no suggestion that
ah that Madeleine er or that the children were drugged and its outragious!

KM Amelie said the other day; it was actually to me it was my friend that " Madeleleine is coming home to my lovely house and I am going to share my toys with her"
I think she is probably in someones house; I dont know why, I suppose it is a feeling but, I feel as Madeleleines mummy I feel in my heart really that shes there I dont believe Madeleine has been taken away from us permanently I dont believe that dont feel it.

GM You know. The same way that we will be eliminated they will as well no doubt in my mind about that We are much more optimistic about what Mr Rebero and The National Director Mr Rebelo are saying that all lines of inquiry are open. and we know because of her we know we are innocent.

KM After being made Arguido?> *sighs* You know we know the Truth! I know Im innocent Gerry knows hes innocent we know each other are innocent and that to me it was actually quite common cuz I thought we are innocent were totally innoncent and we know that. And...

GM (interupts)I think as well you have got to remember it was ah over four months since Madeleine has disappeared and nothing nothing that has happened to us in this time

KM thats right GM has come close to uspetting us the way we felt when we discovered Madeleine was Missing.

KM well they are not going to show anything to implicate us so Im not you know Im not concerned Im honest

GM we are certainly not scared. You know if there is anyting in the DNA results and we dont know them we cannot know them And I dont believe anyone in the press knows them either but there is nothing in those DNA results tests related to Kate and I that will show anything other than completely innocent whether that is enough to eliminate us I dont know but we will be eliminated I am confident of that because we have done nothing.

KM Please help us Please help us as a Family Please help us find Madeleleine Please help Madeleleine please if you know any information at all or if you suspect anything no matter how small please you know just, find it in youself really, have that courage to make that call to the new number and help us bring Madeleleine home.

GM I dont think so as bad we shes been missing for almost six months now the longer that goes on the more high risk and or aggressive the strategy for as us we have waited and been incredibly patient clearly media attention has never gone away! shakes head it has never gone away

KM We havent spoken for long and you know Day after Day Madeleleine is in the papers on the front page of the papers And we've said nothing

KM Its a little bit like I've mentioned before she was very happy very loving and you know and I know Madeleleine was very happy with her life shes special

KM I know she was taken from that Apt and shes out there and I want her back I'm mean that is all I mean everything else I'm sorry is rubbish

Clearly now KM is asked about her Marriage and her tone becomes very snotty:
What do you think?" she exclaims; "very close."

GM we are completely together in this and were united in the search for Madeleine; our daughter

KM I think you know the public can help so much the ppl know something if people know something I guess they can search their heart Everybody can make a difference to this this isnt about us we havent even seen her since she was four she needs our help she needs our family

GM These sort of questions and the publishing of them are nonsense. And we shouldn't be giving them the time of day. There is absolutely no suggestion that
ah that madeleine er or that the children were drugged and its outrageous!

KM Amelie said the other day; it was actually to me it was my friend that " Madel is coming home to my lovely house and I am going to share my toys with her"

I think she is probably in somones house; I dont know why, I suppose it is a feeling but, I feel as Madels mommy I feel in my heart really that shes there I dont believe Madel has been taken away from us permanently I

dont believe that dont feel it.

GM You know The same way that we will be eliminated they will as well no doubt in my mind about that We are much more optimistic about what Mr Ribeiro and The National Director Mr Rebelo are saying that all lines of

inquiry are open. and we know because of Her we know we are innocent.

KM After being made Arguido?> *sighs* You know we know the Truth! I know Im innocent Gerry knows hes innocent we know each other are innocent and that to me it was actually quite common cuz I thought were innocent were totally innocent and we know that. And...

GM (interrupts)I think as well you have gpt to remember it was ah it was over four months since Madel has disappeared and nothing nothing that has happened to us in this time
KM thats right GM has come close to uspetting us the way we felt when we discovered Madel Missing.

KM well they are not going to show anything to implicate us so Im not you know Im not concerned Im honest

GM we are certainly not scared. You know if there is anyting in the DNA results and we dont know them we cannot know them And I dont believe anyone in the press knows them either but there is nothing in those DNA

tests related to Kate and I that will show anything other than completely innocent whether that is enough to eliminate us I dont know but we will be eiml I am confident of that because we have done nothing.

KM Please help us Please help us as a Family Please help us find Madel Please help Madel please if you know any information at all or if you suspect anything no matter how small please you know just, find it in youself

really, have that courage to make that call to the new number and help us bring madel home.

GM I dont think so as bad we shes been missing for almost six months now the longer that goes on the more high risk and or aggressive the strategy for as us we have waited and been incredibly patient clearly the media

attention has never gone away! shakes head it has never gone away

KM We havent spoken for long and you know Day after Day Madel is in the papers or on the front page of the papers And we've said nothing

KM Its a little bit like I've mentioned before she was very happy very loving and you know and I know Madel Was very happy with her life shes special shes...

KM I know she was taken from that Apt and shes out there and I want her back I'm mean that is all I mean everyhtnig else I'm sorry is rubbish

Clearly now KM is asked about her Marriage and her tone becomes very snotty:
What do you think?" she exclaims; "very close."

GM we are completely together in this and were united in the search for Madeleine; our daughter.

KM I mean i think the public can help so much if ppl know something if they can just search the heart really somebdy knows something
and they might not realize it they might just suspect something its not about us we miss her like crazyThis is Madel this is a four yr old girl we havent even seen her since shes been four madel needs help she needs our help she needs to be with her family